So I just moved into an apartment in a family-type neighborhood in a suburb just outside of Tokyo, and not even been here a week and only me and my girlfriend here (she is Japanese), and get a noise complaint in my mailbox from the property management company postmarked 2 days ago which I guess was made by the neighbor below us. Noise complaint says “talking and footsteps at night and in the morning.” It also suggests getting a rug and wearing slippers.
But we both wear socks in the house, and we haven’t even been loud at all, just normal stuff, going to bed around 11pm and waking up like 7am and cooking breakfast and normal talking kind of stuff.
Called property management, and they say it’s the structure and wouldn’t say more details.
Should I move out over this and lose my key money, deposit, and agency fee and pay a cancelation fee to move out early? What am I supposed to do here?
I’ve lived in many apartments in Japan and never had this happen before.
Also, my shower drain hasn’t worked since I got here, haven’t been able to take a shower, and maintenance is supposed to fix it, I complained about it 3 days ago and they haven’t done anything yet.
Quite upset if I will lose a lot of money if I have to move out, and then lose more money to pay upfront fees for a new place.
What should I do? Stick it out and ignore the complaint and live as normal?
What’s the worst that could happen if I stick it out here and my neighbor complains more?
Like I don’t want to be having to tip-toe in my own place and whisper with my gf all the time out of fear of making noise. That would be a terrible way to live.
6 comments
I live in a house now but spent years in apartments and never got a complaint. I am guessing your neighbor is just sensitive to sound and possibly got used to an empty room above him/her. I would ignore it, after all it’s not like you are having 11pm parties or trying to be noisy…
Just ignore it..if they dont like it they can move. Thats of course if youre really not stomping around
You should point out to the property management company that walking and talking inside an apartment are normal activities and that you don’t appreciate the complaint. If they said the problem is the structure then you should suggest that they provide you with an appropriate rug and slippers since the building structure is their responsibility.
It sounds like there’s no need for you to take extensive measures to please the complainer (some people can never be pleased), but one thing to consider is to walk without a heelstrike, that is, you never put your weight onto your heel. It’s not as exaggerated as walking on your toes, but you do make sure to absorb each step’s weight with the front of your feet. It’s a small conscious change that makes a *huge* difference in the level of sound.
Was the memo specifically addressed to you? (I guess you called so it probably was) Sometimes if there is a noise complaint in a building the first thing the management company does is send a notice to everyone and it may not have been against you specifically.
Wear slippers? socks are the same as walking around barefoot noise-wise. No offense but the people I know who stomp around think they aren’t, until they’re explicitly told about it.
Just imagine for a second that you _in fact might be making noise_. Stuff like watching the TV at a high-ish volume can usually be heard across multiple floors!
Maybe y’all are normal. But I think the fact that you haven’t been here a week feels like a pretty good indicator you’re making noise, since otherwise the neighbor wouldn’t know you’re here? There are always annoying people though.
One aside though, as this might be bad timing: noise complaints I’ve seen have tended to be sent to entire appartment buildings, as it’s often hard to know where a sound is coming from. So maybe it’s not actually targeted at you (or people are just assuming it’s you).
signed: someone who lives next to people who seem to bang their cupboards all the time and sometimes watches TV with the window on, making it a collaborative event at 11 PM